Lavender Brown is not brave
by GoldenDawn13
Summary: The seventeen year old is not that brave. Not like any of her other Gryffindor peers. What will Lavender do when she has a chance to be brave?


Lavender Brown is not brave. She may be in Gryffindor, but that does not necessarily make her brave. Sure, Lavender has confidence and sass and doesn't let anyone mess with her. But that doesn't make her brave.

She's not brave like Neville who stands tall and proud, or Seamus, who laughs and taunts at danger, or Ginny with her fiery hair and fierce brown eyes. Lavender joins the DA, learning spells, and contributes to the late night shenanigans, but she doesn't take the blame, resulting into being tortured in the dungeons.

Lavender isn't proud of it, and instead she dreams about being a true Gryffindor Princess, daring and loyal.

Lavender sleepily walks to a table in the Great Hall where all her other housemates are huddling. Snape had called all students and staff down in a furious rage. She had no idea what had happened but had a good guess that Neville had put good use into Fred's and George's pranks again. She was right.

Spray painted on the wall right behind Snape's chair, was a picture of Snape in a vulture hat, wearing a fur fox coat, and holding a big, bright, red bag. **(AN: Sorry if the description's wrong! I'm not completely sure.) **Lavender ducked her head, holding back giggles. She clearly remembered the day when Professor Lupin asked Neville to turn the boggart into his grandmother.

The older years, who knew the story of their Headmaster and Neville's grandmother, snickered, elbowed each other, and whispered to the younger years the story of Snape and the Vulture Hat.

All whispers hush as Snape sweeps in, his dark eyes flashing dangerously. "Whoever did this will punish the consequences," he hisses, in the direction of Gryffindor. Neville, amazingly, keeps a straight, innocent face. Lavender quickly squeezes in next to him, biting her lip nervously. Neville gently squeezes her hand reassuringly. Lavender feels shivers go up her neck as Snape rounds on them.

"I found this," he holds up a strand of hair. It's a light chestnut brown, almost blond, "by the crime. Whoever is responsible has light brown hair."

Lavender stares at the table. The Headmaster is obviously lying and framing DA's Commander which is confirmed by the furious look on the wizard who is silently sitting on her left side. She keeps her gaze on the table as Snape goes around the tables, questioning anyone with light brown hair. No one admits to the crime, and everyone knows he is slowly taking his time, stalking his prey, before pouncing on Neville.

Lavender finally lifts her gaze and sees that Snape is finally on the last House. Gryffindor. He is keeping their table last, and Lavender takes deep, slow breaths as he reaches them.

He skips Parvati's dark hair and Seamus's sandy hair, and turns to her, with her light brown and blond hair.

"Miss Brown," he asks silkily and Lavender curses at herself for not being brave enough to look at him in the eye. "Did you commit the crime on the wall?"

She is the second to last person with light brown hair. Everyone hold their breath, waiting for her 'no' to prove Neville's death sentence. Lavender's mind is racing. She can easily say no and be done with it. She also can take the blame like a true Gryffindor and take a horrid punishment.

Lavender looks at Neville out of the corner of her eye. She doesn't think she can stand rushing to his aid as he crawls into the common room one more time. Lavender tries to gather all her Gryffindor spirit. It's not a lot, but it's all she needs.

"Yes," she breathes. Her three letter answer is soft, but everyone hears it. Surprise flickers in Snape's dark eyes, but vanishes before she is even sure.

"Are you sure Miss Brown?" he whispers in her face. Lavender sees the second chance he is giving her. For her to take back her words and take back her punishment. Goosebumps travel up her arms.

"Yes," she croaks, and curses herself again for sounding so weak. "I'm sure," she states confidently.

Neville is gaping, Parvati is crying, and Seamus is pleading with her desperately with his blue brown irises.

"Well," Snape smiles coldly and grabs the 17 year old roughly by her neck. "We have found our little lion." Seamus is giving Snape murderous looks that would make Voldemort cower and cry.

Lavender struggles from his vice like grip nearly crushing her delicate throat. The Carrows are grinning with glee, not even bothering to hide the fact that they find joy in torture. The staff, on the other hand, is surprised from Lavender's sudden bravery. Their shock soon turns to fear.

Lavender tries to breathe as the Headmaster dragged her over to the graffiti covered wall. She tries not to notice the fearful looks on the entire Hogwarts student body's faces.

Snape waves his hand, looking bored, and shackles appear on her hands. The chains connect to the wall, and Lavender drops to her knees. The shackles are too heavy for her to lift. He waves his wand again and a wardrobe and a barrier that blocks her from everyone else appear. The wardrobe contains a boggart and Lavender is bound to the floor with no wand.

Terrified, she inches away from the wardrobe which slowly swings open. Lavender knows what her greatest fear is, and it brings up bad memories of her father's death. Immediately, the boggart turns into millions and millions of cockroaches that swarm her, drowning her in them. Lavender can't scream, she doesn't want cockroaches in her mouth, so all she does is silently cry and screws her eyes shut.

Parvati is screaming, Neville is furious, and Seamus is in horrified shock, unable to tear his gaze away. All the other students are determinedly staring at the tables in front of them.

Tears are streaming down Lavender's cheeks and her body is racking with silent sobs. The memories flow through her brain. She remembered when last summer Death Eaters stormed their house, when she hid upstairs in the attic instead of being brave. When cockroaches swarmed her while she heard the screams of her little sister, mother, and father being tortured. When there was a sudden stop to her father's screaming and her heart shattered. When her mother threw her out of the house for doing nothing.

Lavender remembered her mother's last words to her. _"I wish you were never born! Then this would have never happened!" _

Snape waved his wand and the boggart, shackles, and barrier finally disappeared, but Lavender stayed on the floor, like a broken doll. She cried and cried for her father and begged her mother for forgiveness, that she wasn't worthless.

The Great Hall was silent except for the heart wrenching sobs of a broken Lavender Brown.

Lavender woke up in strong arms wrapped around her. She swallowed thickly; her mouth was dry as sandpaper from all the crying. The memories of what had happened in the Great Hall quickly invaded her mind and she shuddered. Poking her head out of the crook of someone's arm she realized she was in the boy's dormitory, sleeping in Seamus's bed. She smiled softly at the reckless, idiotic Irish impudent. He seemed to notice her stir, and mumbled in his sleep, "Lavender…sorry…please don't…_love you_."

Her dainty cheeks bloomed pink as a shy smile flickered on her face.

Seventh year was going to be hard. Everyone could see that. Lavender would have to suffer through screams, blood, torture, and worse. But they will get through this, with each other. Together. A true smile blossomed on Lavender Brown's face as she snuggled back into Seamus's arms.


End file.
